Volume 4 – Perpetual Conflict, Chapter 56: Devastating Strike
The formation fell into disorder as one of the several shadowy figures suddenly fell.
A chill crept through the bottom of Lu Yalan’s heart because she couldn’t tell how Qianye had done this. It seemed even the guards themselves had no idea what had happened and began to gaze in random directions.
Lu Yalan recalled the instructions Qianye had given her with his dull and uncaring tone. She clenched her teeth, rushed out of her hiding place, and began to fire in three-round bursts. Three Lone Ghost guards fell in quick succession while the remainder were so startled that they abandoned their search for the incoming enemy and ran back into the manor.
Lu Yalan began to gasp for breath after the bout of running and shooting, working desperately to calm down the fluctuating origin power in her body. However, she didn’t dare stop her feet in the least as she rapidly left her original position and dived toward a different hiding spot.
a.s.sault rifles were her forte, and firing the three-round burst with differential aim was her ability. The accomplishments just now were due, in part, to the fact that the Lone Ghost guards were already in confusion. But killing off three rank-four targets in a single burst was also a superb display of her abilities.
It was just that a single burst was already her limit, and at present, she only had enough power to fire one more shot. However, the Lone Ghost guards inside no longer dared to emerge because they had lost four men in this face-off without even seeing who the enemy was.
It was at this time that a lanky and stern figure slowly rose into the air and, in the blink of an eye, enveloped the whole forest with his tremendous suppressive might.
He hovered in the air above the forest as his voice flooded every corner of the area like flowing mercury. “This old man is called Fang Tianlun. What kind of person honors us with his presence? Why not come out and meet me?”
There was only silence in the four directions.
Fang Tianlun frowned. His gaze, akin to a torch, gradually swept over the fallen guards and toward the surroundings. He suddenly focused on Lu Yalan’s direction and sneered, “This expert’s burst fire isn’t bad at all. Judging from the technique, you should be Lu Yalan, right?! Good, very good. A mere wh.o.r.e actually dares to betray us? After capturing you, I’ll cut off your limbs and soak you in a jar of alcohol. I guarantee you’ll live for a month at least…”
Lu Yalan was hiding within a bush and holding her breath with an ashen expression. Her limbs had become so stiff that she couldn’t even extend her fingers. She knew Fang Tianlun would definitely do what he claimed—since he planned to torture her for a month, he certainly wouldn’t let her die a day sooner.
But Fang Tianlun hadn’t even finished speaking when m.u.f.fled sounds rang out from within the woods as a dozen or so dark objects flew toward him from different directions.
“Grenades!” Fang Tianlun’s expression changed significantly.
He wasn’t actually afraid of these grenades, but was, instead, astonished at how he hadn’t sensed the enemy below him at all. Additionally, judging from the trajectory of the flying grenades, it seemed as if there were at least three or four of them hidden here. How was this possible?
Fang Tianlun didn’t have time to think as he immediately descended to the ground with hazy origin power emerging from his body. He had pa.s.sed the champion’s threshold for many years now, but his progress had also halted there. Although he could hover in the air, flexible movements were out of the question. At this moment, there was no clear intelligence on the enemy situation, and it was possible that they were specialists in concealment. Naturally, he wouldn’t stay in the air for no reason and become a target.
However, the trajectory of those grenades seemed to have been precisely calculated and thrown with a special technique. Fang Tianlun hadn’t even landed on the ground when the grenades exploded one after another in the air—the circular wave of flames combined with the shrapnels to form a huge net which swept over him full in the face.
Amidst this continuous series of rumbling explosions, Fang Tianlun was engulfed in smoke and flames.
Afterwards, another dozen or so grenades flew through the darkness. This time, the target was the manor. These grenades were also thrown from different directions and landed at different distances. The closer ones landed within a couple dozen meters which happened to be within the range of the manor building, while others flew several hundred meters before exploding at the center of the villa.
The continuous explosions thoroughly tore apart the silence of the night.
The manor was in a state of confusion. Half of an annex building had collapsed and was burning rapidly amidst miserable cries. The sentries couldn’t stay hidden any longer and scuttled out from concealment to search for the enemy.
At this time, Qianye was standing at the border of the woods with his aura completely retracted—in fact, he almost seemed as if he was one with the tree behind him. The origin tides within his body, on the other hand, weren’t calm at all. Even with his repeatedly upgraded speed and incomparably pure and dense origin power, the two continuous bouts of extreme movement and grenade-hurling had still drained a considerable portion of his stamina.
At this time, the last of the chain explosions around Fang Tianlun had just subsided and the flames were beginning to weaken. Qianye calmly gazed at the human-shaped silhouette that slowly emerged from the surging fumes before hurling the grenade in his hand.
Fang Tianlun had just made his way out of the fiery rain. At this moment, his face was covered in dirt and sc.r.a.pe wounds, and the clothes on his body were tattered, exposing his dark brown inner armor. His entire left shoulder was in a most sorry situation—both clothes and armor had been torn open to reveal a large patch of flesh.
However, Qianye was quite surprised. There were quite a few abrasion marks on the exposed parts of Fang Tianlun’s body with numerous fingernail-sized shrapnels embedded within the flesh, but Qianye noticed that, on closer inspection, these shrapnels were blocked by the steel-like muscles and unable to penetrate deeper.
Although Qianye hadn’t expected such ordinary grenades to do major damage against Fang Tianlun, such a st.u.r.dy const.i.tution had surpa.s.sed the level of an ordinary champion. It seemed his innate gift was related to the strengthening of his body.
At this point, Qianye no longer hesitated and immediately tossed the remaining two origin power grenades.
Fang Tianlun had just walked out of the explosion when he saw an origin grenade rolling toward him—its surface was already beginning to flicker with the glow of origin power!
“Dammit!” He only had enough time to curse out loud before immediately curling himself up on the ground and using his arms to protect the vital areas on his chest.
Such a powerful wave of grenades was already enough for breaching fortifications on the battlefield. It definitely wasn’t an operation manageable with just a couple of men. But Fang Tianlun still couldn’t get a lock on the enemy positions. It was unbelievable! He began to recite various obscenities in his mind while forcefully defending against the origin power explosion.
An extremely dazzling light lit up in the night sky as terrifying fluctuations dispersed in every direction. The destructive power of these high-temperature flames was far superior to that of ordinary fire. After being abused by a single origin power grenade, another two exploded at the same location. At the center of the explosion, Fang Tianlun was suffering the impact from wave after wave of origin power storms.
Lu Yalan had frantically left her previous position and fled to the back of a giant tree in the distance as the first grenade exploded. She didn’t even have time to congratulate herself on finally escaping Fang Tianlun’s focus before she was scared silly by the terrifying origin power storm.
Although the center of this explosion was quite a distance away, the earth beneath her feet rocked and swayed. Even the great tree behind her, which would require several men to wrap their arms around, began to tremble continuously and seemed as if it would snap off at any moment.
Qianye stared fixedly at the center of the explosion, his face as gloomy as water. The two continuous probing attempts had yielded clear results. Fang Tianlun’s speed and agility weren’t outstanding, but his const.i.tution was especially resilient. Such an opponent couldn’t be considered dangerous but was also fairly difficult to kill.
At the thought of this, Qianye cut open his own finger and flicked it. A peculiar drop of fresh blood flew out and struck a giant tree several dozen meters away. This drop of blood became more and more condensed after leaving his body and finally became an eerie navy blue. It also seemed somewhat crystallized.
Qianye’s face turned somewhat pale after shooting out this drop of blood. He lowered his body and vanished silently into the mottled shadows.
Fang Tianlun slowly got up after the origin power storm subsided. His face was the very picture of wrath because he hadn’t been reduced to such a wretched state in quite some time. The nearby trees began to shake and leaves began to fall chaotically as a substantial bluish-white origin power radiance extended outwards from his arms.
It was at this time that he was suddenly startled—he rapidly turned around and stared fixedly at the eastern border of the woods. There was a strand of aura surging from that direction which, despite being fairly faint, caused one to s.h.i.+ver.
The aura of an arachne viscount!
Fang Tianlun inhaled a breath of cold air. The dark races inherently possessed st.u.r.dier const.i.tutions compared to humans and, at the same level and under the same conditions, held a relative advantage in combat strength. The situation regarding the raid on this manor was already bizarre enough, and now, with the sudden appearance of an arachne viscount, he couldn’t help but become alarmed.
Fang Tianlun was on full alert—he immediately turned toward the arachne viscount’s aura and activated his origin power to its peak.
Qianye quietly reappeared within the shadows in a certain part of the woods, as indiscernible as the nocturnal mist rising atop the leaves. The Twin Flowers in his hands had been combined into one—scarlet origin power flowed amidst the dense twilight and flickering stars. Following which, a pair of flaming golden wings unfurled behind him.
The turbulent origin power fluctuations caused Fang Tianlun to suddenly turn his head, whereupon his vision was immediately filled with the radiance from the wings of raging flame.
Qianye’s hand was was steady—abilities like Heavy Caliber, Accurate Shooting, and Night Vision unfolded in sequence. In the air, the twin flowers bloomed, faced each other, and then withered in each other’s embrace.
In the pitch darkness of the night, an even darker dot flew toward Fang Tianlun. It resembled a most profound darkness capable of devouring all light—impossible to discern with the naked eye, and could only be traced from the changes in the surroundings as it pa.s.sed by.
As a champion, the intuition he had sharpened by walking across countless blades was screaming “danger”!
Within moments, Fang Tianlun suddenly recalled a terrifying name: Black t.i.tanium Bullet of Annihilation! Black t.i.tanium Bullets of Annihilation were the nightmare of countless human experts just as Mithril Bullets of Exorcism were for the vampires.
It was already too late to evade. One could hardly escape the area of effect of the Black t.i.tanium Bullet of Annihilation with a mere s.h.i.+ft in position. Fang Tianlun let out a crazed howl and crossed his arms over his chest as bluish-white origin power radiance suddenly erupted to its peak, forming numerous layers of dazzling and almost blinding white barriers.
The Black t.i.tanium Bullet of Annihilation flew silently through the air enshrouded by a faint layer of black mist.
Like ink falling into water, the black mist immediately dispersed Fang Tianlun’s daybreak origin power upon contact. A black spot emerged on the burning-white origin power barrier and spread out within the blink of an eye like the ink on a superior work of calligraphy.
The daybreak origin power stained by the black mist rapidly disintegrated. It wasn’t even discernable whether or not the Black t.i.tanium Bullet of Annihilation had slowed down as it simply pierced through the multi-layered defenses and came into contact with the skin on Fang Tianlun’s arm.
Fang Tianlun’s origin power defenses, as well as his steel-like flesh, were immediately shattered. The bullet shot through the bones of both arms and only came to a halt as it reached his ribs.
The next moment, this seemingly invincible bullet suddenly melted as jet black metallic fluid extended toward every direction. Flesh and blood were reduced to nothingness wherever it pa.s.sed.
On the verge of death, Fang Tianlun drew his dagger and ruthlessly sliced off a large patch of flesh from his chest. He then held the dagger in his mouth and cut off both his arms which had been pierced through by the bullet.